Otherside Picnic: Volume 5, page 7
“Well, yeah...”
“I respect that.”
“Uh, it’s really nothing special, though...”
It felt awkward being complimented like this. This was the first time Toriko and I had a serious talk about university, and what we planned to do in the future, and that was making me feel restless too. Unable to sit still, I was wandering around near the lectern when I saw something written on the board in chalk.
It looked like English, but not quite. Did the original passage mean something?
“You’ll be in your third year next year, huh? Does your university have seminars, Sorawo?”
When Toriko asked me that, I reluctantly returned my focus to the conversation. “We do. You choose a seminar to join in your third year.”
“Same as us. Which are you joining? Have you already decided?”
“Nah, not really...”
“Oh, I see.”
“What about you, Toriko?”
“Same deal. I didn’t join the program because I was interested in it, so I’d feel bad being there with the actual serious students...”
“You’re sounding awfully timid.”
“That’s how I am, by nature.”
“Now you’re just lying. You’re always super forward with me.”
“Only with you, Sorawo.”
Oh...
I shut my eyes tight despite myself.
I screwed up. This is going in a bad direction.
“Just me, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, I can see that. You’re pretty shy, after all,” I said.
“Yeah. When I meet someone for the first time, I can’t even talk.”
“Wait... Hold on. The first time we met you were able to talk just—”
I did it again! I hadn’t been able to hold back and not point it out.
“Yeah... When I think I’m gonna be able to get along with someone, I tend to get a little too friendly,” Toriko replied, sounding kind of meek.
So she realizes it...
“Well, uh, I’m glad it was me.”
“Do you still feel the same way?”
“Of course I do.” Maybe Toriko’s timidity had irked me, because my tone got a little stronger there.
There was a short silence, then Toriko suddenly said, “Are we done here?”
“Uh, sure.”
“Okay, let’s move on to the next place.”
I thought I heard a door opening, and turned to look. The classroom door was open.
Huh? Did I close it? I don’t remember.
I didn’t want there to be anything here, so I took a look with my right eye, just to be sure, but I was all alone, the same as before.
“Toriko, did you go out into the corridor?”
“No? I’m by the lectern now. Can’t you see me?”
I looked back to the window, and sure enough I could see the blurry image of Toriko. “So you are. I wish I could see you a little more clearly, though.”
“I wish I could say that. I can’t even see you from where I am, you know that?”
“It’s just a window, after all. If it were a mirror, then—Ah!” I raised my voice at the sudden realization. I must have been out of it. How did I not think of this sooner?
“What?!”
“Toriko, where’s the washroom?”
“Huh? Did you wet yourself?”
“No, dummy! And shouldn’t the question be ‘are you going to wet yourself’?!”
“You sounded so desperate, I had to assume...”
“Geez. No, that’s not it. There’s mirrors in the washroom!”
“Oh! Proper mirrors!”
“Yeah! Not this unreliable reflection in the glass. Or do you have one on you? A compact mirror?”
“I don’t usually carry one around. You, Sorawo?”
“Me either...”
“We’re the same.”
What do you sound so happy for?
“Anyway! If we use the mirrors, I might be able to see you better.”
“Okay, let’s give it a shot.”
We each headed to the nearest washroom in our own worlds.
I left the classroom and returned to the entrance hall, entering the washroom in the shadow of the stairs. I immediately spotted the mirror there.
Reflected in it was...me. Just me.
“Well, Sorawo?”
“Yeah, sorry. Looks like my guess was wrong.”
“It didn’t work?”
“I can see myself.”
“Yeah. It’s a mirror, after all.”
“Uh, well. Yes, but...”
I had expected this to work, so I was pretty shocked. But why didn’t it? I could see her reflection in the glass, but not the mirror? What was the logic there? Okay, maybe expecting logic from the interstitial space wasn’t such a good idea, but still...
While I looked into the mirror, thinking about it, Toriko spoke up. “That’s just how it goes, I guess. Where to next?”
“Hold on...”
“Hm?”
“Just now, there was something...”
I sensed something amiss, and had Toriko stop. I felt like, for just a brief moment, those familiar golden locks had flashed across the corner of my eye, and so I got closer to the mirror. I tried narrowing my eyes, closing one eye then the other, and a number of other things before that golden color crossed the mirror again.
No doubt about it—that was Toriko’s hair! I was able to see her under a certain condition. But what was it?
“The angle...?”
“Huh?”
“I think I’ve worked it out. Hold on a second, okay?”
I was gradually narrowing down what the condition was. First, I tried looking straight at the mirror. I was focusing on my left eye’s normal vision for this. When I did, my right eye, which had lost focus, moved a little. It was like the ocular muscles had twitched slightly as I relaxed them. When it happened, I saw something different in the gap between my left and right fields of vision.
The mirror stirred like a pool of water, a silver haze covering its surface for a moment, and when it cleared—there was Toriko.
On the other side of the mirror, I could see Toriko’s eyes turned in my direction. She was pressing her smartphone against her ear, her brow furrowed with concern. It was the first time I’d been able to get a proper look at her face in a while, and that really made me feel relieved. I’d been feeling pretty dejected.
As I tried to keep Toriko in my field of vision in an attempt to preserve my own sanity, I saw one of the stall doors behind her open. Someone came out of the stall. She dragged her feet as she headed out the door. A duffle coat, muffler, and short black hair. Even with her face turned downwards, I immediately recognized her.
It’s me.
In the mirror, I raised my face, and...
The phone rang.
I jumped a little, looking away from the mirror.
The phone in my hand was ringing.
“...Hello?”
“Sorawo?”
“Toriko? Huh?”
“You okay?”
“What do you mean?”
I looked up as I asked that, but only my own bewildered face stared back at me from the mirror. I couldn’t see Toriko, or the me who had come out of the stall anymore.
Toriko let out a sigh of relief.
“You scared me there. You started talking nonsense.”
“Oh... So you hung up?”
“Yeah. It seemed like things were getting bad.”
“What was I saying?”
“It was about ‘a lively place where people gather,’ or something... Didn’t make any sense to me.”
Oh, yeah... If just one of us was going to go crazy, now that I thought about it, it was more likely to be me, the one in the interstitial space. I didn’t like that I hadn’t realized that sooner.
I shook my head. “Thanks. I’m glad we had a Plan B prepared.”
“Hey, listen, I really don’t want to be the one hanging up. I did it reflexively before, but when I started thinking it might not connect again, I got super scared.”
“Yeah, I get that. Sorry.”
“Seriously. My fingers are still trembling.”
“I was able to see you, Toriko.”
“What? Really?”
“Yeah. You looked worried.”
“Well, duh?! I could slap you right now, Sorawo.”
“Attagirl. Try to keep your spirits up like that.”
“Ohh, I’m mad. I’m gonna sock you. I swear.”
“Now we see your violent nature exposed.”
As I was teasing her, Toriko started growling like a dog, so I decided it was time to lay it off.
“So? Think the mirror will work as a gate?” Toriko asked, and I looked at it again.
“I saw a silver haze, so I think if we time it right, it could, but...”
Concerned about what was behind me, I turned to look. The stalls here were all open, and there was no one around. Was what I had just seen the doppelganger of me that had appeared in the past?
“I’d rather not try it here. Can we go somewhere else?” I said, and Toriko got suspicious.
“Did something happen?”
“Nah, not really.”
“Really? Well...do you want to go to the washroom upstairs?”
“I guess...washrooms are the only places with mirrors, huh?” I wasn’t keen on the idea, but what choice did I have? I’d seen the doppelganger before. It was creepy, seeing a warped version of myself with all the ugliness inside me emphasized, but if I brought it up now, I would only worry Toriko more.
We left the washroom, went up the stairs, and entered the second floor washroom. After checking that all the stall doors were open, I looked into the mirror again. Recalling the way it had felt the last time, I relaxed the muscles in my right eye, and...
It came.
The silver haze came over my vision again.
Nice. Now, if I could see Toriko, I could have her use her left hand to open the gate to the surface world. I’d need to climb up onto the counter to go through the mirror, though.
As I looked and focused, Toriko’s form slowly appeared...
“Huh?”
Something was weird. I wasn’t looking straight at her, but upwards.
And the scenery wasn’t the washroom I expected. It was outdoors. The sky was clear, and I could see the tips of the tall, faded grass. The Toriko looking down at me wore an olive-colored jacket zipped up to her neck, along with jeans, and lace-up boots.
“Huh? Huh?” The surprise was apparent in my voice.
I could tell with just a glance: this was the scene where Toriko and I had first met on the Otherside.
Toriko reached her hand out towards the mirror. My eyes were drawn towards her approaching face. In the next moment, I dove into her eyes. Or that’s what it felt like. My field of view flipped around. I saw myself, soaked and half underwater, taking Toriko’s hand, looking towards me in awe. My hair was plastered to my head, and water dripped pitifully from my nose and mouth, but my eyes sparkled—they were so incredibly full of life. But how...?
“How do I look anything like Ophelia?!”
This time, I managed to regain my sanity before Toriko hung up on me. The scene in the mirror wasn’t the field in the other world anymore, but the washroom it originally was. What had changed was that I could see the other me having completely left the stall. She dragged her feet, approaching me with strange, robotic movements. Her body was poorly balanced. I felt like her hands were stretched and strangely elongated.
Instinctively, I turned around. There was nobody there. Looking back to the mirror, the other me had vanished from there too.
“Sorawo, did you say something? Should I call back again?”
“Nah... It’s fine.”
“You sure?”
“So, uh, listen. I saw you. From the first time we met.”
“Huh...?” Toriko sounded bewildered.
“When I was drowning in the other world. I was looking at myself through your eyes.”
“Through my eyes?”
“Yeah.”
There was a moment’s silence, and then she shouted. “Hold on?! Does that mean you could see how I see you?”
“I guess it does?”
“Wait! Stop it! Ahh, you can’t do this to me! This is the worst!” Toriko started panicking, which confused me.
“Uh, it didn’t feel particularly malicious or anything.”
“That’s not the issue! Hey, could you stop picking on me, and hurry up and come back?”
“I’m not picking on you! But, darn. Do you think we can try it again?”
“Sorry... Someone came in here.”
“All right. Let’s go to another floor then.”
“What is this, the toilet tour?”
We moved to the third-floor washroom, and tried the same thing there.
When the silver haze cleared this time, it was a dark room. There was something like a person’s head in front of me, and on the other side of it I could see Toriko and myself looking towards me. The door behind them was open, and I could see a familiar street outside it.
Oh, crap! That’s what the road outside my apartment looks like through the Pandora mirror stand in the room next door!
The moment I grasped the situation, I instinctively closed my eyes. In the mirror, the door that led to the modular bathroom opened, and I felt like I saw myself come out of it for a moment. Both of my elongated, mantis-like arms were raised, but I forced myself not to focus on it.
“Toriko, are you okay?!”
“Huh?! I’m fine, but... Did something happen?”
Thank goodness. No matter what was going on, it didn’t seem to be affecting Toriko in the surface world.
“I may be starting to figure this out. The mirrors in this interstitial space might be connected to mirrors that you and I have seen before.” I explained what I was experiencing, but Toriko seemed mystified.
“The mirrors are connected? So you can travel through time?”
“Yeah, no, pretty sure it doesn’t work like that... If the current me turned up in the place where we first met, it would cause some really weird things to happen.”
“That’d create a time paradox, yeah.”
“So I think I’m just seeing scenes from that time through the mirror.”
“So, we can’t use it as a gate, then?”
“It feels like it should work, but when the scenes appear, my attention is pulled into them. That makes me start going crazy, and it’s keeping me from sending you the signal.”
“Then how about I keep my hand on the mirror the whole time? If I do that, then even without the signal, I’ll notice as soon as the feel of it changes. Then I can pull on it.”
“It’s a good idea, I think.”
“Okay, then let’s try—”
“No, hold on. This place is pretty tight, so I want to do it somewhere more open, in case things go south, and we have to run.”
I stopped Toriko. The doppelgangers had me worried, and so did the fact that I had seen Pandora just now.
“Somewhere other than a washroom? Hmm,” Toriko thought about it. “The side mirror of a car, maybe...? Oh, I know. They sell mirrors at the convenience store, right? Why don’t I buy one?”
“I won’t fit through a small hole like that.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s right, huh? Well... There’s a multipurpose building that the sports clubs use when practicing. It’s got a gymnasium, and I think there’s a big mirror there.”
“Okay, let’s try going there.”
We left the washroom and headed outside the building again.
4
We reached the multipurpose athletics building and headed inside; the first floor was a gymnasium. I immediately opened the door to go looking for a mirror, but this time, Toriko stopped me.
“Wait, Sorawo. This one may be a no-go.”
“Huh? Why?”
“There’s a whole bunch of people.”
“Oh...”
The interstitial space was as deserted as ever, but there were other people where Toriko was.
“There are people who go to the gym in the middle of the day, huh?”
“I don’t think time of day has much to do with it.”
“Do you ever come here, Toriko?”
“Sometimes. When I want to run.”
“Oh yeah?”
I don’t think I had ever, at any point in my life, felt like I wanted to run, so that didn’t click with me. I’d been forced to run a number of times, though.
Peering in through the door, I saw a wide, empty space with lines of exercise equipment. These machines were ostensibly meant for physical training, but maybe they had been warped by the interstitial space, because with all the leather belts and chains, they all looked like torture equipment to me. There was a large mirror, but if it was hard for Toriko to go in there on her side, it wasn’t going to do us much good. Even if I was able to escape, a whole lot of people would see me emerging from the mirror—and they’d see Toriko’s translucent hand.
“Okay, let’s try another building then...”
I was about to leave, but Toriko spoke up. “Let’s look in the other rooms first. The dance clubs use this building for practice, so we might find other rooms with mirrors.”
She led the way, and we checked the other rooms one by one. When we were in hallways without windows or other reflective surfaces, it was hard to spot Toriko, so I had her give regular updates on her current position.
When we did find mirrors they were too small, or the rooms were in use in the surface world, so it was hard to find a good spot. We kept at it, and in a hallway on the fourth floor, Toriko shouted, “Sorawo, I found one! Second door from the back on the right-hand side!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I opened the door she’d indicated; it was a brightly lit room with plywood flooring. The whole back wall was covered in mirrors. It might have been used for dance practice, because the entirety of the floor was covered in small scuffs and scratches.
“Oh, just what we were looking for.”
“No one’s here. Let’s use it. I’ll lock the door, okay?” Toriko said, and I locked up on my side too. We didn’t want anything coming in from outside to interrupt us. It might slow down our escape if anything happened that forced us to flee, but...this was probably the best room we could ask for, so I wanted to do whatever it took to get out of here.
